Archive > 2009 > Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec

February 2009 · Previous · Next   PDF

The world of cheese

By Joseph O'Neill

It had never occurred to Breda Morrissey that things might go seriously wrong between herself and her son, Patrick. But back in the fall he had declared her “persona non grata”—his actual expression—and, specifically, declared that she was no longer permitted to have contact with her grandson, Joshua, on the grounds that she would be “an evil influence.” It was a crazy, almost unbelievable turn of events, and all about such a strange matter—a scrap of skin. Well, maybe not exactly. “This is not about skin, Mom,” Patrick said during the first session of the mother-son therapy they jointly underwent in New York. “Can’t you see? That’s not what this is about.”

Breda turned to the therapist, Dr. Goldstein—Dan, her son called him—for help. But Dr. Goldstein, whose dramatic beard and small pointy nose gave him, Breda thought, the look of a TV judge, was looking so severe that Breda was silenced.

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68

Previous · Next